Like a Girl
by Nymbis
Summary: A series of short stories on the kunoichi. Yuugao: Some things cannot be tolerated.
1. Yuugao: A Side

**Like a Girl**

**AN **This is an anthology made up of short stories based on the kunoichi. As of right now, it's going to focus more on the minor ones as opposed to Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, etc. but they might come in as well, who knows? Anyways, each kunoichi will have two chapters and I hope you like it :o)

**Yuugao: A Side**

The katana's blade shined wickedly in the moonlight as it slashed across her final opponent's stomach, causing him to sputter before slumping to his knees and finally toppling over. Yuugao paused in her battle-defensive crouch, blood dripping off of her forearms and sweat trickling down her brow behind her mask. There was a slight panting from exertion, but after a few moments her shoulders released their tension and her hand drifted off the handle of her sword after placing it in its sheathe.

Another A-rank mission accomplished, she thought as the tip of her sandal absently kicked the rogue nin, Hayate kneeling down beside his own fallen opponent across the clearing to check his pulse. The two of them had been assigned a simple termination mission with another pair of ANBU operatives. Really, it was overkill, as it had only taken the two kenjutsu experts a few moments to dispose of the targets.

She stood; fully relaxed now as she felt no further chakra signatures. Hayate did the same, turning towards her.

"You okay?" His soft voice was further muffled by his mask, but Yuugao never had a problem hearing him.

"I'm fine," she said with what would have been perceived as coldness by anyone else, but Hayate knew her too well for that. Either way, he was apparently satisfied.

Yuugao flexed her fingers and legs, preparing to jump into the trees to travel back to Konoha, but something made her pause. It was slight, very slight, and someone that wasn't as attuned to movement as she was wouldn't have even noticed. But she noticed. She noticed in a very big way as tiny little movements fluttered against her bicep, going upwards.

She swallowed deeply, her eyes sliding slowly to confirm her suspicions. The _thing _on her arm stared back at her with its too many beady little eyes which were held up by its too many little legs and she felt her heart rate increase. Time seemed to still as she stared at it, and she _knew _it was staring back at her.

Hayate had finished cleaning off his twin blades when he turned to stare at her, "Yuugao?" He asked slowly, noticing that she had seemed to freeze in place.

"Yes?" She replied, her tone carefully controlled while inside she was panicking in a very big way.

"Are you alright?"

_Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff_

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure, you look a little pale…"

_It's going up and it's going to get in my hair and getitoffgetitoffgetit__**off**_

"We need to get going to meet the others at the checkpoint," she brushed off airily, even as her arm muscles tensed and her voice escalated in pitch slightly as another tiny shifting occurred on her arm due to tiny little legs.

Hayate brushed a hand through his hair, making it jut up at angles due to the mask. He didn't seem to notice as he shifted awkwardly between his feet, "If you say so."

Yuugao shivered as she felt it crawl and creep up to where her shoulder met her neck. She knew she was being ridiculous, she was a grown woman, a kunoichi, and a little thing like a-

_It was on her neck and it was going to bite her and she was going to die-_

Hayate moved to stand next to her, eyes scrutinizing her behind the porcelain mask. After a moment, he seemed to pick up on what was going on, and Yuugao was shocked out of her preoccupation with _the thing_ by his warm, calloused fingertips brushing against her neck, pinching and then withdrawing. Yuugao froze.

Hayate smiled, she could tell by the crinkling around his eyes, "Sorry, you had something there," he said casually, before jumping into the trees and sprinting into the darkness.

She waited until he was far enough ahead of her before she allowed her shoulders to slump and a relieved breath of air to escape her mouth, fingers ghosting over the spot on her neck where that _thing _had been. Something warm flooded her system as she watched Hayate disappear into the foliage, appreciation showing on her face even if it was hidden by a mask, and she thanked the kami for his understated observance.

Yuugao had just killed three rogue nin, was coated in their blood, but there are still some things that cannot be tolerated.

Spiders were definitely one of them.


	2. Yuugao: B Side

**Yuugao: B Side**

She doesn't need to say anything to him, because she gets the feeling that he knows anyways. Maybe not the specifics, it would be remarkable if he knew the specifics, but she's got that air despite better efforts. The involuntary tensing of her shoulders when he entered the room, the way her hand drifted to the handle of her katana. How her masked face never left his partially covered one. He knows. There is leaf blood on his hands and eventually there is a price to pay.

"And Squad A will accompany Baki's team in securing the west border of Suna," comes the clear voice of an ANBU strategist, but she can't hear him over the blood rushing through her ears. This is supposed to be a meeting to protect both villages from the beginning onslaughts of the next shinobi war, but there are different agendas that she knows she will have to meet and the anticipation is killing her slowly.

He knows, and she doesn't need to whisper the name because it probably wouldn't make a difference to him. He is a shinobi, and shinobi learn in the beginning not to remember every name. And she doesn't need to draw her blade, because he somehow knows that the message is there, even if she is currently bound by duty not to act on it. She is loyal to her Hokage and her village, and now her village is allied with _him _and she cannot move on her better intentions because of honor and the love of a memory.

But she is sure that he also knows the moment Suna breaks the treaty, or the second he renders himself useless to either village, there will be an unfortunate accident. And he will not fault her for it, just like when it's over with she will not fault him for _that _death and _that _name on the memorial. Yet she will not allow herself to forget, and will not let him hide behind red tape forever.

Some things cannot be tolerated.


End file.
